The saga continues. The site has been sold yet again to a developer who plans to build the approved plan which requires the preservation and restoration of the lobby but nothing else. http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/12/19/flushing_theater_has_new_owner_may_finally_be_developed.php

I too also love the pictures (although they make me sick) of the the theatre. With that said, does anyone have photos of this partially destroyed staircase that’s mentioned in the article or the above post?

i went there today just recently and its in alot worse shape that it is from that picture it was vast full of graffiti and with alot rooms but the stairs and such are starting to give away but i was able to walk or climb fine. it was a nice and it was also dangrous manly because of the damage done to the structure. so it was a little bit scary.

SWC, I’m thankful that you’ve photographed surviving portions of the Keith’s interior, and that you’ve been kind enough to share them here. Please don’t withdraw any posts or photos based solely on the petty criticisms of others.

You would think so. The Indian culture is very ornate as well as the Chinese. They both show films in major cities, but I think the size of the RKO was against even their budgets. A cultural center is another matter. It is tailor made for that and should have been persuade.

First of all its screed, not skreed. CinemaTreasures even has spell check. And holes that were hammered through? They must have had a backhoe on the roof then. You could fit a 747 through some of those.

I went to the RKO Keith’s in Flushing virtually every Saturday as a kid in the 1950s to see sci fi movies. Fantastic place, and memories. Does anyone know how someone got to the offices on the second story? Some photos show law offices on the second story. Was there a separate door? I do not see any doorways on the outside of the building to permit someone to get to the second story. If anyone has a recollection of how access to the second floor offices was obtained, please share it.

This was my theater of the sixties, I can not count how many great movies I had seen there. It was a beautiful place. there is a depressing video tour of the place, found on You Tube. A ghost of its former self, the video is like revisiting the Titanic.

In the case of the Paradise, it appears to be that the megachurch had megabucks that the owner couldn’t refuse. In the case of the Keith’s (and I suspect in most cases) it is politicians in the pocket of developers.

I wonder why the Paradise did not make it as a music venure. They had such grand plans(like the King’s have). Maybe there is just so much money to go around for entertainment. I wonder if this is the same church that wanted to buy the Portage Theater in Chicago and was turned down. They also have the old Loew’s in Brookyln. I believe it was the Metropolitan.

I somehow missed the fact that the resplendently restored Loew’s Paradise in the Bronx has been bought by a mega church, and construction workers there had already managed to start a fire on Nov. 5 that caused heavy smoke damage. It’s a shame that so few of these stories end in Happily Ever After.

Having been inside both recently – the Kings is in much better shape, and will be much easier to restore. However, I don’t think the Keith’s is beyond repair. I hope that the development falls through and someone comes along to restore the theater.